The basic phenomena of the atmosphere, such as wind, temperature, air pressure, humidity and rains vary largely already at distances of a few hundred kilometers and sometimes already even in the scale of ten kilometers. These have a great effect on any outdoor activities, because of which people desire for accurate information on situation and reliable prognoses. The air further carries with it rapidly different kinds of impurities, such as dust, pollen and gaseous pollution, the concentrations and distribution of which are important information particularly for persons suffering from allergies and asthma. In case of an accident radioactive material may be emitted in air, poisonous clouds of gases or particles, volcanic ashes and other substances, the movements of which are required to be known quickly by civil defense authorities.
Prior known environmental measuring systems consist of measuring stations which may be automatic or manned. The information collected by them is transferred in a specific transfer network to central stations, at which distribution and concentration maps are created, as well as weather and other prognoses. The measuring stations and transfer network are usually controlled by authorities and only limited information of the results yielded by them are distributed to the public. Especially information accounting for the needs of an individual is often impossible to provide. To build a dense network of measuring stations is often expensive which limits the geographical coverage of a system according to prior art. The expandability and convertibility of a system often depend on the structure of the measuring stations; it is often impossible to add a new measuring station in an existing system and it requires the building of a new system.
Publication EP 622 625 discloses a system for monitoring air quality through an integrated network of a central site for receiving air-content data from multiple air-content sensors. The air-content sensors are located at air vehicles, ground vehicles, buildings and at potential pollutant emission sites. The air-content data is transmitted to the central site telemetrically through a satellite link, through cellular relay stations and simple radio transmission.